Dolphins-Chiefs: How to watch the first NFL playoff game streaming exclusively on NBC’s Peacock

Looking to watch tonight’s playoff matchup between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs? Good luck finding it on TV.

The wild-card matchup won’t be airing on NBC or any other channel. Instead, it will stream exclusively on Peacock, NBC’s subscription streaming service. The network had something of a test run last month when it exclusively streamed the Buffalo Bills Week 16 win against the Los Angeles Chargers without any major issues or complaints, apart from the $5.99 a month price tag to subscribe to Peacock.

That game drew 9.9 million viewers, much less than the 30 million or so per game who tuned in to watch wild-card games last season, according to Sports Media Watch. But the NFL says it’s playing the long game and following trends as viewers abandon cable subscriptions in favor of subscription services.

“We know and we see the continued evolution in the media landscape, and we want to be where our fans are,” Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, said on a conference call this week. “We know they’re increasingly, especially younger fans, on different screens.”

It’s the first time the NFL has placed a playoff game exclusively on a streaming service, and naturally there are a lot of people upset by the move. Former Sixers great Charles Barkley said he was “disgusted” over the NFL’s decision to take the game off broadcast TV, while The Ringer’s Bill Simmons predicted the move will be a “disaster” for the league. Chiefs defensive end Charles Omenihu even sounded off on the decision, calling it “insane” to be playing a game streaming exclusively on Peacock.

Calling the game on Peacock is Mike Tirico, who is finishing up his second season as the play-by-play announcer for NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Alongside him to call Dolphins-Chiefs will be former Dallas Cowboys head coach turned NBC football analyst Jason Garrett, who spent the season on the network’s pregame show, Football Night in America. Kaylee Hartung, the sideline reporter for Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football, will handle reporting duties from a frigid Arrowhead Stadium, where temperatures are forecast to dip below zero degrees, with wind chills that could make it feel like negative 20 degrees.

As they did with the Bills-Chargers game last month, NBC said the fourth quarter of the Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game will air commercial-free, a 40% reduction in the number of ads for a game. As a result, NBC said, fans will get 12 additional minutes of game coverage, though much of that last time was occupied by announcers and studio analysts.

NBC will be airing another wild-card game Saturday — Cleveland Browns vs. Houston Texans. That game will be available to watch on both NBC and Peacock at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, with Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge — the network’s Big Ten announcing team — in the booth. Kathryn Tappen will handle sideline reporting duties.

Here’s everything you need to know to stream Dolphins-Chiefs on Peacock Saturday:

No. As part of its deal with the NFL, NBC is streaming Dolphins-Chiefs exclusively on Peacock, its subscription service. So fans in Philadelphia won’t be able to watch on TV.

But the game will air locally on broadcast television in the teams’ home markets. So fans in Miami can tune into WTVJ NBC 6, while fans in Kansas City can watch on KSHB NBC 41.

Fans in Philadelphia can listen to the game on 1210 WPHT via Westwood One’s coverage. Calling the game will be Kevin Harlan and Ross Tucker, with Olivia Dekker reporting from the sidelines.

Yes. Dolphins-Chiefs will also stream on NFL+, the league’s subscription service, according to Schroeder.

NFL+ currently runs $6.99 a month, slightly more expensive that Peacock.

NBC is partnering with EverPass Media to provide games to commercial businesses. So if your local bar airs games via DirectTV For Business, they would have to sign up for the Peacock Sports Pass separately.

So far, EverPass doesn’t have a tool like DirecTV’s Sports Bar Finder, an app that lets you find bars, restaurants, and other venues airing games.

If you’re looking to go to a specific bar or restaurant to watch, the best advice is to give them a call and see if they’re set up to show the game.

It remains unclear if Taylor Swift will be in Kansas City to root on boyfriend Travis Kelce, but she does have an opening on her schedule, with her New Eras tour set to resume on Feb. 2 in Tokyo.

Neither has confirmed nor denied Swift will be in attendance, but it seems likely she’ll be there, considering the music superstar has attended five of Kelce’s last six games (she couldn’t make it to Chiefs-Eagles at the Linc due to complications with the Era Tour’s stop in Rio de Janiero).

For the record — the Chiefs are 6-3 in the nine games Swift has attended.

Donna Kelce will be at the game, but she declined to say whether Swift will be in the skybox with her.

“Not doing it,” Kelce told Extra’s Bill Bush. “I’m not playing that game.”

Fox, CBS and ESPN will each broadcast one game during wild-card weekend, while NBC will broadcast three, including its Peacock game.

Sunday’s wild-card game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills was moved to Monday at 4:30 p.m. over safety concerns as a major winter storm is forecast to hit western New York

The Eagles will travel to Tampa Bay to take on the Buccaneers Monday night at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN and ABC (and yes, there will be a Manningcast on ESPN2).

The No. 1 San Francisco 49ers will face the lowest-remaining NFC seed in the divisional round. Same goes for the No. 1 Baltimore Ravens in the AFC.